Magazines, Reading, Fun, And Rewards
I’ve been doing a lot of magazine reading this past month. I’ve also, for reasons that I won’t go into, have found out about a whole bunch of new-to-me fiction magazines. What I find fascinating about all of them is that while they have a voice and a point of view, they’re all genre magazines. They have a lane and they stay inside it.
Then there’s Pulphouse. From its very first incarnation thirty-some years ago, Pulphouse had no defined genre. That’s one of its selling points. The revived Pulphouse—which is up to 19 issues now—is exactly the same. No defined genre. It encompasses many genres. But it has a definite voice. The stories are all unexpected in one way or another, and every single one of them is entertaining. Dean Wesley Smith has edited this incarnation from the start and he’s doing a tremendous job.
During the pandemic, most publications consolidated. We increased the number of issues to six. So there’s even more fiction now.
Now it’s time for the Pulphouse Subscription Drive. We don’t send mailers. We don’t nag when the subscription is up (although we do notify you). Instead, we hold a Kickstarter.
Everyone who backs the Kickstarter and chooses a reward will get a six-issue subscription. But there’s a lot more here. From anthologies to collections to writing workshops, the rewards include something for reader and writer alike.
So head on over. The Kickstarter is one of our shorter ones, so you have a very limited time to subscribe and get cool stuff. Take a peek. You’ll have fun just looking, and more if you subscribe.
7 responses to “Magazines, Reading, Fun, And Rewards”
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Hi, Kris.
I hope at some point you’ll let us know what some of these magazines are. I’m always on the lookout for good ones, and I’m sure there are a lot out there I don’t know about.
Oh, and I pledge the Kickstarter earlier today.
Thanks,
Keith
Thank you, Keith!
I’d also love to hear about the magazines. I’m struggling to find markets beyond the fantasy/SF markets – especially for mystery.
I’ve read Douglas Smith’s book and my notes from the WMG course on selling short fiction and done everything suggested there to find markets; I’ve looked on Ralan, The Grinder and Duotrope; I’ve looked at where stories published in every anthology on my shelf were first published; I’ve searched the Internet and scoured through lists of markets there; I’ve looked at author bios in the magazines I know of to see where those authors have been published before.
But I’m still struggling for mystery/general fiction magazines. I have a sense that there are a lot of magazines beyond what I’m seeing but I honestly don’t know what to do next to find them and would welcome any pointers.
Folks, pointers for Amy & Keith? Amy’s done what I would suggest. (I also look at bios of published short fiction writers. That helps too.)
Amy, one starting point for one branch of research should be a trip to my natural habitat: The library. A BIG one; not a branch of even the largest library systems, but the main library of one of the truly major public library systems in the US (there are only about half a dozen of them). If that requires a major working vacation to somewhere with better weather than wherever you live has, that will be so sad (and tax deductible as a business expense).
Focus on author names more than on publications to start with; find out where the “comparable writers” have been published going back at least a decade. Then do the first-order expansion: Do the same for all authors sharing individual-issue tables of contents with those authors. Have your faithful assistant (or spousal unit, or even particularly talented pet) enter this in a database for you.
Look for the intersections and overlaps. “Licensed the rights once to something similar” doesn’t scream “viable potential market” the same way that three or four or five hits in three or four years does.
The fun follow-up is associating all of this with not just “name of publication” but “intersections of rights-acquisition decisionmakers” — the postgraduate version of “following the editor.” All of which should sound like enough work to fully justify that tax deductibility!
And remember, too, that in the contemporary environment no library is comprehensive, and that this little exercise will bear replication in the online world. I just recommend starting with print as much to establish a workflow and framework for analysis that’s capable of being repeated in three years as anything else. But then, I’m a biochemist by training, so “replicable data-gathering methodology” matters to me a great deal more than it typically matters to those inside of ANY aspect of publishing (including the indie world).
Thanks very much indeed for your detailed and thoughtful reply, C.E.! I’m in the UK and am anyway housebound for health reasons so can’t hit any physical library (let alone your fabulous one, sadly!) but that’s a very interesting strategy if I can find a good way to apply it online.
Unfortunately, the strategy I described is very US/Canadian-centric. It simply won’t work in the UK due to the different concept of what a “public library” is… not to mention the funding and staffing shrinkage that have been imposed almost continuously by your government for the last four decades. Then, on top of that, there’s the controversy over payment of (and accounting for) lending-rights fees for material in periodicals…
All of which says you need to take up library tourism to Chicago or Boston.